Ori – Robotic transformation of interior spaces | Hacker News Reader

Ori – Robotic transformation of interior spaces

orisystems.com

125 pointsjchoong48 comments

From Andrew Plotkin's Left Foot Living, an arts review pamphlet set in the future:

---snip---

Blind Spot Storage Solutions are selling a space management tool which is -- well, certainly the most efficient we've ever heard of. It's based on the "subliminal" solutions, which create an illusionary ceiling a few inches below your real one, leaving several cubic meters of space for additional storage. But Blind Spot goes far beyond that.

You tag all your possessions; and then the tool simply keeps them out of sight. Everywhere out of sight. Walk out of a room, and it will be immediately and silently packed with books, boxes, chotchkes, and whatever else you've tagged as "in storage". Go down the hall; just before you pass each doorway, the room beyond it will be siphoned free of detritus -- which will be packed elsewhere, leaving the room just as you expect it.

The ceiling space is used for both storage and transport. Objects are whisked up into the ceiling, yanked around your living space, pulled down into efficient pile-ups. Protective fields ward everything against friction, acceleration, impact. More fields pump air around and baffle currents, preventing the explosive winds and supersonic lashings that would otherwise occur.

You never see any of this. If you stand in the center of a room and turn around slowly, a tide of bric-a-brac is crawling behind you -- just beyond your peripheral vision, and from the walls to an inch from your back. Whip your head around, and it's gone. Moved. Just out of sight.

The catch is reflections, of course. And shadows. Blind Spot strongly recommends that you tag mirrors, and anything polished. Also light sources. The tool can fake in reflections and light beams, if it knows to. If it doesn't, you'd better have nerves of steel.

Not even slightly compatible with owning pets.

---snip---

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/review/review-37.html. No date, alas, but posted years ago.

"robotic" part seems to be pure clickbait. From robotic you would expect something that would act autonomously. This one doesn't even seem to be automatic - requiring one to push a button or use some app to control it at the distance.

Then again, that latter part looks scary - can somebody push the button in app to close the bed while you're sleeping? Hopefully there are some sensors to detect whether it's safe to perform the moving.

...in case there are such sensors, it might actually be properly robotic. Unfortunately no information about safety of this all is not given.

I'm guessing it is simply too weak to be able to move if someone is on it.

I hope not. I could easily imagine wanting to store things summing to more than my own weight in there given the amount of space available.

As someone that lives in the Southern US, all I can think about is the number of spiders that would live in the cubby the bed slides into.

And just like that, all interest I had in this product vanished.

Surely not if you're actively using it every day.

As someone that lives in the Southern US, all I can think about is how I don't have to optimize my space because my city is livable and affordable.

"Sorry, I can't come into the office today, my bedroom crashed and all my clothes are stuck inside it."

I remember seeing some prior art somewhere. Oh yeah, found it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io5_CBPjJ6M

I like the idea, but I get wary at the thought of getting home at 3 AM (perhaps with company) and finding out that the bed extruding mechanism has failed... It seems the robotic part is a bit overkill, couldn't it just as well be mechanical/manual?

“And remember, always leave the bed out before going to a party. ;-)”

Now to make it truly robotic. Hook it up to calendar etc, and have it figure out that if you go out after business hours and/or weekend, it should automatically ready the bed.

Only step up then is virtual butler mode, where you can text ahead about bringing guest(s) or similar.

That and if you have a spouse/roommate/etc., you're boned if you want to use the "living room" and they want to use the "bedroom."

That was a really confusing website to me. Lots of pictures and none that really explained what it did. The main important piece is the video in the middle, but that don't look like a video unless you pass your mouse over it. And with a slow network connection, it didn't happen to be animated as I scrolled by so I didn't notice it until the second pass.

It appears to require a hard floor and I wonder if it would make grooves in the floor after a while.

Thanks for the warning! For others in the same situation, the direct link to the diagrammatic rendering video which best shows how it works is:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/174233048/?autoplay=1&loop=1&...

It's just a piece of forniture that moves side-to-side with electric motors when you push the switches.

Yeah, remove the motorized part and it's a nice idea. I like multipurpose furniture and rooms. But the maintenance overhead is too much, unless you really, really need to save those 1-3 minutes on switching from bedroom to office...

Agreed - I've seen other demo videos of similar furniture that can be converted by just one person - a smaller build female person to boot. IMO engineering something with clever cantilevers so that pre teen kids etc. can manipulate them is far preferable to an electronic motor having to do it.

(PS: Don't know if it is just my boarding house training from 30 years ago kicking in, but I was horrified to see the girl in the video didn't make the bed before the hid it underneath the main structure!) :)

I'm sure it'll have a mechanical override. The motorized part is just a luxury that can help move things into preferred positions more precisely. Imagine integrating this with the Amazon Echo as well.

"Alexa, I want to lie down" while you go use the restroom.

This concept is often used to expand storage space, where the storage shelves slide sideways. While there are electrically powered systems for long aisles, here's a much simpler system from Uline.[1]

If you wanted to build something like Ori, minus the "robotic" part, you could just order the track and rollers from Uline, and build cabinetry out of Ikea parts atop a Uline base.

Business opportunity: write an app to design such things, visualize them, and order the parts. Like Autodesk Kitchen Designer, which does kitchen cabinet planning.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moumo_m5G_8

A minimum viable product in this space would be a home office. With the unit in the open position, there's a home office with shelves and cabinets on both sides. Roll it into the closed position, and there's a living room with a deep shelving unit.

So it's basically this guy's transforming Hong Kong apartment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co

That guy is really good. It's simple and very well done.

An extreme version of this is the amazing "transformer" flat design by a Hong Kong architect:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm-GpEis5uc

Design seems similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV0qATsyts

Really cool product presented beautifully. But perhaps from being a security engineer, I wish it would say anything at all about how they're going to ensure a 16 year old kid can't pwn me from the internet and crush things -- here's praying it can't crush people.

I've just started getting into the whole smarthome thing, it worries me how hard it is to get information about security characteristics or even standards enforcement for these (which appear to be mostly non-existent).

I wish the public were more inclined to ask the question of 'but how is it secured?' when examining something to be placed in their home.

Hallowed are the Ori

I feel guilty saying I was looking for this...

I was about to say it. Expected a massive down-vote though.

Not a particularly new concept, a variation on murphy beds. And as others have pointed out the 'robotic' title is not really appropriate. I am curious though if people find the design ethos in the furniture appealing. While I like the practical and cost effective nature of IKEA type simple design I don't find it particularly aesthetically appealing.

> Guided by the principal

It's "principle" in this case.

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-mistakes/p...

Hmm page doesn't show anything apart from the footer and header for me on Firefox nightly...

same on FF 47 :(

Found it! The "HTTPS Everywhere" add-on causes this (may have something to do with CORS as well).

Putting small motors into furniture now counts as "robotic"? Are we in a new bubble?!

What keeps it from crushing you while you sleep?

Or smooshing you into the wall? Or just pinching your hand when you bend over to get something that fell under the bed?

Apropos, as I just sold my house and am moving into a 1BR apartment. My plan was to slowly encase myself in machinery and assistants and diffuse outwards.

I have this semi-related vision of mobile furniture locomoting from one apartment to the next, during a move, like something out of Fantasia.

I guess when bioengineering finally(?) takes off, we'll eventually end up with http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Chairdogs

> except without needing electricity or computerization.

And what would it run on? power of imagination? heh

dog food and water

exactly... it would shit! :D

Oh, good. I didn't have enough maintenance problems to worry about already.

Nice, a modern Cabanon (http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/le-corbusiers-cabanon/).

It seems a step in the right direction, but I would really like to see a solution for the kitchen embedded in it... I can't imagine myself going out to eat everyday.

So, like a fancy version of a Murphy bed?

The tyranny of space.

particle board ftw!

price not listed.

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